| Stereotypes |
Author: Eric Christian Berg (---.amherst.com)
Date: 03-20-2002 07:32
You had me until the Apollo vs Dionysius comments.
The article does a very good job of using the diversity of the human
race as a lever to challenge and question the racial pigeonholes found in fantasy games, but undermines this by then boiling down the human experience into a cliche dichotomy of order vs chaos, essentially adopting the Changeling dogma that modern living is about banality, mundanity, and restriction. Ignoring for the moment that a great many systems of ordering the universe don't, as the author claims, tell you what you can and can't believe, the greater problem is that his comments on the human condition only really apply to Western Judeo-Christian culture, and not even all of that.
There have been bursts of the Dionysian all throughout the Industrial Revolution. Romantics, flappers, hippies, and goths have followed in a steady stream, challenging tradition and societal mores and follow from a long tradition that's existed throughout history. Further, parts of the modern world wallow in the Dionysian. The author seems to forget that all this literature and fantasy that he's talking about exist in our world, our outlet for experiencing the fantastic and reaching beyond our personal experience.
The world and humanity are complicated, as he points out earlier, and represent the full gamut of archetypes from the Dionysian reveller to the Apollonian scholar. To try and boil us down to banal little drones desperate to experience magic and fantasy is to shortchange us and fall back on the same stereotypes he was challenging in the first place.
Otherwise, I thought there was a lot of insight in the article and it makes a very good point about the use of races in fantasy games.
Eric
|
|
| Topics |
Author |
Date |
  |
Stereotypes |
|
Eric Christian Berg |
03-20-2002 07:32 |
|
aeon |
03-20-2002 07:51 |
|
world series of poker poker tips str |
12-25-2005 13:01 |
|
casino lac leamy poker hold em |
12-26-2005 01:44 |
|
online holdem poker games |
12-27-2005 11:38 |
|
back gammon davids absolute gamesgri |
12-28-2005 17:32 |
|
world poker tour |
12-30-2005 03:02 |
|
free flowers clipart |
12-31-2005 00:28 |
|
slot machines video poker odds |
01-02-2006 02:52 |
|
pacific poker |
01-02-2006 14:45 |
|
phentermine |
01-03-2006 01:55 |
|
phentermine |
01-04-2006 07:14 |
|
500 texas hold em clay poker chips p |
01-06-2006 10:08 |
|
how to win at texas hold |
01-06-2006 14:56 |
|
tamiflu adipex diet pills |
01-06-2006 22:26 |
|
bonus poker strategy new online texa |
01-08-2006 14:15 |
|
buy tamiflu tadalafil generic |
01-09-2006 03:18 |
|
party poker 2 player texas hold em p |
01-09-2006 13:37 |
|
free online blackjack pai gow poker |
01-10-2006 00:07 |
|
birth control pills phentermine 35mg |
01-10-2006 04:57 |
|
buy soma online weight loss pharmacy |
01-11-2006 18:53 |
|
high stakes internet poker room home |
01-12-2006 03:51 |
|
vegas poker chips carribean stud pok |
01-15-2006 01:30 |
|
propecia |
01-16-2006 11:05 |
|
three card stud |
01-16-2006 21:45 |
|
credit cards |
01-19-2006 08:34 |
|
planet poker razz poker rule |
01-23-2006 03:12 |
|
casino promotions |
01-24-2006 07:18 |
|
credit |
01-28-2006 15:07 |
|
texas holdem poker for pc |
01-31-2006 16:26 |
